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Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill star in this based on a true story baseball tale (Published Thursday, Feb 7, 2013)

Updated at 11:44 AM PDT on Wednesday, May 30, 2012

One of Hollywood's hottest screenwriters has hired one of the town's more overlooked scribes to adapt a novel by one of the great suspense novelists of the 20th century.

Zach Helm, whose "Stranger Than Fiction" deserved a far better reception, is writing an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's "Deep Water." The film is being produced by Steve Zaillian, who has been wracking up nominations this awards season for both "Moneyball" and "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo."

"Moneyball" Trailer

Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill star in this based on a true story baseball tale (Published Thursday, Feb 7, 2013)

"Deep Water" tells the story of a man who tries to scare off his wife's many lovers by leading them to believe that he killed one of her previous paramours. But things get ugly when talk that he really is a killer starts to spread through the community, and he soon begins to wonder if maybe he did in fact murder someone.

Highsmith's novels have been turned into classic films ranging from Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train," to the Matt Damon star-maker "The Talented Mr. Ripley." We've got very high hopes for this one.

"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"

Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara star in director David Fincher's American version of the global bestseller about an unlikely crime-fighting duo trying to solve a 40-year-old murder. Opens Dec. 21. (Published Wednesday, May 30, 2012)

In the meantime, Helm and Zaillian are also collaborating on "Freezing People Is Easy, " starring Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd and Kristen Wiig, that's a comedic take on the true story of Bib Nelson a 1960s TV repairman in Los Angeles who tried to bring cryogenics into the mainstream.